23/04/2009
NEWS STORY
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There are serious concerns within the F1 paddock that McLaren will be hit hard when the FIA convenes an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council next week.
The extraordinary meeting sees McLaren facing five charges of breaching Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, all relating to the incident now commonly known as 'Lie-gate'.
At the weekend, a number of British newspapers, speculating as to the outcome of the hearing, whilst also ruminating Ron Dennis' shock decision to quit F1, stated that the FIA "hates" McLaren. While this might not come as news to fans of the team/sport, it is a dreadful indictment of the situation and one is hard pressed to think of any other sport where a similar claim might be made of a governing body and a participant.
While some claim that this latest scandal - no matter who is ultimately to blame - is clear proof, in the wake of the spy saga, that there is something rotten at the heart of the Woking team, others are not so sure. Either way, there is a growing fear that McLaren will be hit hard next week, with one very prominent F1 insider keen to remind Pitpass that the Woking team is on two years probation following the 2007 spy saga.
Probably for this very reason, the Daily Telegraph is claiming that should McLaren be hit hard several of its sponsors might seek to end their contracts with the team. The British newspaper claims that agents acting on behalf of a number of sponsors have already approached both the FIA and FOM to "impress upon them the gravity of the situation if McLaren are suspended".
"I can say that if a disproportionately large penalty were given to McLaren on April 29 then the sponsor that I am associated with might leave," said a source close to one of the team's key sponsors. "But the punishment must fit the crime. If there is an irrefutable case of corporate deception then fair enough.
"I think we all know the subtext here," the source continued, "the FIA wanted to oust Ron Dennis. I believe the governing body have allowed this situation to escalate and it is doing no one any good - not McLaren, not the FIA and certainly not the sport. Apart from anything else, it is dissuading other potential sponsors from entering Formula One."
The newspaper mentions a number of possible punishments including race bans and a fine, however it not only stops short of mentioning exclusion from the championship it also fails to point out that the Woking team is still on probation.
A two-race ban, similar to that handed to BAR in 2005, would see McLaren miss the Spanish and Monaco events, both critical in terms of sponsors, most notably Banco de Santander. A four-race ban would see the team, and reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton, miss the British Grand Prix, not only the last ever Grand Prix at Silverstone but possibly the last ever British Grand Prix, period.
While the Woking team will be looking to make up ground on its rivals in Bahrain this weekend, the real fight will take place just a few days later, and it is a fight over which the British outfit will have little control.
No matter the rights and wrongs of the matter, this is a very worrying situation.